So there were 4 shots in the arm before the 2 shots to the head that killed him? And one of the shots to his head went in his eye, through his face, and came back in at the jaw, and the other went into the top of his head indicating that his head was down?
If so, then it seems like 4 of the shots might have been to stop him and the head shots were fired when it was clear he wasn’t going to stop.
EXACTLY. The cop did everything he could not to kill him and keep himself alive.
ALL of the shots were intended to STOP him.
Those unacquainted with the reality of using a handgun to stop an attack usually get their notions of what handguns do from TV and movies.
Roy Rogers or the Lone Ranger would typically draw from a holster and use their outstanding point-shooting skills to shoot the gun out of the bad guy's hand without even harming the hand. The TV movie alternative is that a person is shot using a handgun and immediately falls unconscious or dead. Neither of these scenarios reflects the reality of most shootings.
Shooting at a gun-sized target at twenty feet would be challenge enough with carefully aimed shots while lining up the sights on the handgun.
In a real self-defense shooting there typically isn't time or even physical coordination enough to make such a shot. The risk of failing to stop the attacker is that a person is killed by the attacker. This makes it necessary to adopt a different plan.
Every single shot is initially aimed at the center-of-mass of the target. This maximizes the chances of the shot incapacitating the attacker most quickly. It is simply a coincidence of anatomy that shots intended to quickly stop a person are also most likely to kill the person. That is because STOPPING the attacker typically requires one of three outcomes.
1. The attacker loses enough blood to drop blood pressure sufficiently to lose consciousness. The attack stops.
2. The attacker's central nervous system (the brain or spine) is sufficiently affected by the wounds to render him incapable of continuing the attack.
3. The attacker's skeleton or musculature is sufficiently damaged to prevent the attack from continuing.
Shooting at the center of mass of the attacker has the highest probability of stopping the attack because a hit in this area will often hit the heart or a large artery and quickly lower the blood pressure, or the bullet will damage the spine and prevent further coordinated motion by the attacker.
In self-defense classes, one is taught to shoot twice at center-of-mass and then, if the attacker is not stopped, shoot at the head. This is because the failure of the first two rounds may indicate that the attacker is protected by body armor.
If the policeman was confident that no body armor was involved, then all shots would be to center-of mass. It might still be possible that a shot intended for center-of-mass might hit the head of an attacker who crouches down during the attack.
As for those who would recommend that the cop shoot-to-wound rather than kill the attacker, it should be pointed out that four of the rounds did wound the attacker and yet failed to stop the attack.